Vodafone Idea Q4 results: Loss narrows to Rs 6,419 cr; ARPU steady at Rs 135

Telecom major Vodafone Idea Ltd on Thursday said its loss narrowed marginally to Rs 6,419 crore for the quarter ending March 31, 2023. It report loss of Rs 6,563 crore in the year-ago period.

The firm's revenue rose 3% to Rs 10,532 crore in Q4FY23 as against Rs 10,240 crore in Q4FY22.

The company's average revenue per user rose to Rs 135 in the March quarter as compared to Rs 124 in the year-ago period was steady when compared with Q3FY23.

On Thursday, the firm's scrip on BSE closed trading 0.4% higher at Rs 6.99.

However, for FY23, the loss widened to Rs 29,298 crore from Rs 28,234 crore in FY22.

VIL recorded the first-ever annual revenue growth from services post-merger. Its revenue grew 9.4 per cent to Rs 42,133.9 crore from Rs 38,489.5 crore a year ago.

The capex spend of VIL for the quarter stood at Rs 560 crore, taking the total to Rs 3,360 crore for FY23. Its total gross debt (excluding lease liabilities and including interest accrued but not due) as of March 31, 2023, dropped to Rs 2,09,260 crore from Rs 2,22,890 crore as of December 31, 2022, due to the conversion of interest dues arising from the deferment of spectrum instalments and AGR dues into equity issued to the government.

The operator’s 4G subscriber base has increased to 122.6 million in the March quarter from 121.6 million in the December quarter.

“We are pleased to report annual revenue growth for the first time post-merger on the back of consistently improving performance for the last several quarters,” said Akshaya Moondra, CEO, Vodafone Idea.

“We continue to remain engaged with our lenders for further debt fund raising as well as with other parties for equity or equity linked fund raising, to make required investments for network expansion, including 5G rollout."

VIL said it has allotted 16.13 billion equity shares of the face value of Rs 10 each at an issue price of Rs 10 each to the government as part of converting its dues into equity. "With this issuance, the promoter shareholding stood at 50% and GoI shareholding at 33%," said VIL in a stock exchange filing.

With inputs from PTI